What were your dental career expectations before joining for dentistry, which you soon realised were all wrong after you started the course or about to graduate?
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I always thought becoming a lecturer or getting into academics after dentistry was easier.
We will earn lots of money as we pass out ..
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I thought setting up a clinic and earning a lot would be easy.
Because dentists charges in clinics are expensive. I thought it’s a luxurious profession and I can be earning a lot as soon as I finish BDS. I wanted to gift my parents and take them for trips with my money. But sadly my decision of taking up BDS was itself wrong. If I had taken up engineering or Commerce, I would be earning better.
After reviewing everyone’s responses on this topic, I agree with all their opinions. One of my favorite songs has a line that I always quote to everyone: “Life is a lesson; you learn it when you’re through!”
After obtaining a decent rank in KCET, I got a government seat in a private dental college. My family and I never realized that the cost of completing the course would be so high. With the dream of earning well immediately after graduation and the thought that dentists earn well, we assumed that the ROI would be quick. But this was so far from reality!
Reality hit hard after graduation, but my love to help people kept me going in the profession for almost 6 years before I gave up and made my part-time career in the content world a full-time option.
Thought it was all smiles turned out to be survival mode.
Dental career have many ups and down in modern world as competition in every field is been seen to be increased day by day. But the main matter is overcome that barrier like for a dental clinic the patient may or may not give good respond but have to see all further.
That you get good pay! 
Looking at the earnings of the dentists who had opened their own practices a couple of decades back I always thought dentistry would be a career that’ll will be morally as well as financially rewarding. Sadly my perspective changed drastically following dental school completion.
Dentistry has an ever evolving and that’s what makes it all the more interesting. Over the years, I have evolved as a clinician and so is my view towards what I want to do further. I would definitely defer to agree that joining Dentistry has had a negative impact because it has shaped me to be a better individual and opened opportunities which otherwise I couldn’t have.
After getting message that I have got a seat in dental college made me very happy but after submitting all my certificates and confirming seat over there I got to hear from friends, relatives that there is no good career in this field and even the college management was very careless I expected a very bright future but it did not happen as i expected and finally I left that path.
Earlier I used to think that there is instant growth after graduation, but soon I realised it’s not like that . It’s a slow process, we need to be patient enough. There might be days when your clinic remains empty ( no patients) but with constant determination you will definitely be successful .
I used to go to dentist all the time whether it for cavities or yearly checkups. But many people go to dentist when it can’t be tolerated more. So people awareness is less which cause low clinical inflow but awareness is increasing. So earnings can be more but not expected because when it’s comes to medical related studies it always take time to achieve the expected income
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dental career expectations include growing demand for specialized services.
It’s a great privilege for me to be a part of dentistry for last 9 years. But, people of India are not aware about oral and teeth check up regularly. That’s why lack of importance at this field.
I thought of adding value to research field with my experience in dentistry and with the knowledge of oral pathology and microbiology. But, then there was a reality check that hit me very hard! The real world feels that we are not a great fit in the research category. But I would love to prove this wrong, given an opportunity.
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Career opportunities post the graduation in a stable clinical setup is a myth. It’s a daily grind for survival and stability. Even having million of population awareness regarding the oral health among people is very minimal. Lack of awareness and negligence could be one reason of lesser opportunities to the upcoming dentists
good decision
After graduating for 4 intense years in dental education and completing a year-long internship, my expectations were that I would earn a high income immediately after BDS, that starting a new clinical practice would quickly become successful, and that government job opportunities would be readily available. However, the reality has been quite different.
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